Betsy Bloomingdale, affectionately known as “Good Queen Betts”, a life long resident of Los Angeles, is well known for philanthropy, style and grace.  In the Aug 2014 issue of Town & Country, her close friend Alex Hitz offers a glimpse into the celebrated lady’s love of flowers.

“Betsy Bloomingdale’s rose garden is reached through vine-covered gates, past an allee of meticulously trimmed hedges and cypress trees.  I call it her secret garden, because it’s set off to the side of her Holmby Hills compound….

Betsy’s fine hand and love of flowers are alive in every room of the house – the orchids, just so, on the grand piano, those exquisite dahlias and roses the size of cat heads in silver or porcelain bowls throughout the library and breakfast room….  The rose garden isn’t there just for show, though it is my favorite in Los Angeles; it’s a cutting garden for the Hybrid Tea roses and Ball dahlias that decorate the lovely rooms inside the house, whether there’s company or not.”

Vanessa Birley‘s love of nature and in particular flowers, began many years ago in her parents’ garden in Surrey. Keen to help out, she would keenly pick whatever flowers she could get her hands on (without her dad seeing) and bring them into the house.

Her love of coloring became transfixed for some years with doodle-art, and she gained her BA degree in interior design from the Academy of Art in San Francisco.

Working with color, texture, pattern and design has instilled in her a passion for conveying her ideas in the form of beautifully made paintings and soft furnishings.

German architect André Broessel, of Rawlemon, has looked into his crystal ball and seen the future of renewable energy. In this case it’s a spherical sun-tracking solar energy-generating globe — essentially a giant glass marble on a robotic steel frame. But this marble is no toy. It concentrates both sunlight and moonlight up to 10,000 times — making its solar harvesting capabilities 35 percent more efficient than conventional dual-axis photovoltaic designs.

Floral Designer Simon Lycett rocked the world with gorgeous florals of the British Garden Pink, and delivered delicious arrangements good enough to eat, for British Flowers Week at New Covent Garden.

Modern garden pinks belong to the dianthus family of plants which are native to the mountains of Europe and Asia.

The Greek botanist Theophastus (371-287 BC) gave the dianthus it’s name: dios meaning divine and anthus meaning flower.

Pinks have been cultivated for hundreds of years, since before the time of Elizabeth I.  Pinks were known as feathered gillyflower in the 16th century.  They are referenced by Shakespeare in a Winter’s Tale.

Fascinating!  It seems that pink meaning flower predates pink meaning color!

Did you know that you could find your dream job by following our job posts?

Please see the “Jobs” section of our B|Brooks blog page!

Photographer Kirsty Mitchell creates Wonderland imagery on a grand scale with the help of a few friends!

kirstymitchellphotography.com

Enjoy this Holiday Weekend!

Bloemencorso Zundert is the largest flower parade in the world entirely made by volunteers. The parade takes place on the first Sunday of September annually. The floats are large artworks of steel wire, cardboard, papier-mache and flowers.  Dahlias are the only floral variety used and it takes thousands of them to cover just one float!

The huge floats are made by twenty different hamlets and each of them consists of hundreds of builders, aged 1 to 100, who are all equally crazy about the event.  The older members of the hamlet are often responsible for planting and growing the dahlias, while the younger ones build the float in large temporary tents that are built exclusively for the event.

Most people in Zundert will happily give up their days off to work on the float. The social cohesion that comes from building it is very important. A hamlet is like a family where everyone knows each other and everyone is welcome. After a long evening working on the float people drink a beer together and most hamlets organize all kinds of other activities like song contests and barbecues.